Huntsville Art League has created place for art in the Rocket City for 50 years (Beth Thames)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- It’s been fifty years, and they’re still here, with their pastel portraits, their painterly landscapes, and their watercolor beach scenes.

In this city built on the study of deep-space, rocket science, and computer technology, there is still a place for oil painting, figure drawing, and clay sculpture. There is still a place for art. The Huntsville Art League’s founders are proud of that.

As early as 1957, artists and art lovers met to plan and plot. Their goal was to open an art museum and their efforts paid off. The Huntsville Museum of Art opened its doors in 1975. That was the good news. The bad news was there was no room to house HAL, so the members started what one artist calls “the nomadic journey.”

Over the years, HAL has been housed at two area malls; The Annie Merts Center; a storefront on Andrew Jackson Way; The Huntsville Depot, and now, for twelve years, they’ve been at home at 3005, L&N Drive, just south of Parkway Place Mall. They’ll be open for the 20th annual Gallery Tour on July 26th.

The featured artist for July is Dan Tatum, an award winning water color and pastel artist. A long-time member of HAL, Tatum aims to capture the emotions of what he calls “strange sounding” places, like Iguazu Falls, Argentina, as well as the images. He calls his one man show “Art From Near and Far.”

Some of the 100 HAL artists act as mentors, too, pairing up with new painters and Sunday sketchers, showing them how to get a portfolio ready or just to get better at their craft. The youngest of these beginning artists are in their middle teen years, and the oldest are “I’m too polite to ask your age,” according to Joan Funk, President of HAL and a painter herself.

Funk, a NASA engineer during the work day, calls HAL a “hidden gem” and one of the city’s best-kept secrets. “You can come here for classes in anime, journal-making, painting floor cloths, making jewelry. Everything in this gallery was made by someone--nothing is bought from somewhere else and brought here.”

Funk is proud of the fact that HAL operates as a “feeder” for places like Lowe Mill Art Center. “Artists come here, learn about their craft, gain confidence, and move on, maybe to studios at Lowe Mill. For the first time, they hang their art on the wall, they price it, they see it has value.”

In spite of all of the gains the arts community has made here, Funk jokes, “There are some people who don’t think you have to have art to survive.” In a time when the economy is shaky, when people are pulling in their belts, they may not think of buying a large painting for the den or a water color series for a friend.

Still, there are inexpensive options, like hand-made cards, delicate earrings, lapel pins. Shirley Barnes, mixed media artist and long-time member of HAL, says there is really something for everybody at the HAL Gallery. And it’s all beautiful.

Barnes likes the simple act of creating beauty. With training in art therapy, she understands that people use art to express feelings. “It’s therapeutic to express on paper what you didn’t even know you were feeling,” she says. “Creating art can make you a better person.”

Yes, it can, but creating art is not always profitable. In fact, it rarely is.

Like most non-profits, HAL lives on grants, donations, member support, and class fees, which, Funk says, are very reasonable. Plus, there’s the community.

“This is a sharing and supportive community,” she says, gesturing at the art hanging on the walls and naming the artists who created them. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of this?”